A Melbourne photographer has filled a derelict house with nine tonnes of sand to transform a small pocket of Melbourne's hipster heartland into a slice of the Namibian desert.

Emma McEvoy said she wanted to give visitors a taste of her amazing experience in the southern Namibian ghost town of Kolmanskop, a former German mining outpost which is slowly being reclaimed by the desert after being abandoned in the 1950s.

Her exhibition Sand Castles is now showcasing her work in Fitzroy, in Melbourne's inner north, this weekend.

"[Kolmanskop] has been on my bucket list for five years because I love shooting in surreal locations around the world, so seeing something like this was just like a dream," McEvoy said.

"I had heard stories that you can be shot if you get caught in this restricted area, so that was in the back of my mind the whole time," she said.

Upon her return to Melbourne, she searched for months for the perfect abandoned house to showcase her work.

"This house is creepily similar to what the houses are like there ... the colour of the walls, the cracks ... it was just all the serendipity, the weird twist of fate, everything coming together," McEvoy said.

"I brought in nine tonnes of sand, two massive trucks full, and just a million wheelbarrows wheeling it in here with lots of my mates helping me which was awesome."

Entry to the Sand Castles exhibition at 3 Hertford St, Fitzroy, is free and ends on Sunday.

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